Dr. Martin Hinckley is
the president of Assured Quality, and a Design4X associate. Dr. Hinckley has
a broad background of design experience on projects requiring exceptional
levels of quality and reliability. Dr.
Hinckley is an internationally recognized leader in mistake-proofing and has
provided training for Hewlett Packard, Applied Materials, Caterpillar, and
NACCO Materials Handling Group, among others. He is the author of “Make No
Mistake – An Outcome Based Approach to Mistake-Proofing.”
At
Sandia National Laboratories, he was a lead mechanical engineer on major projects,
including the X-Ray Laser and the Short Range Attack Missile (SRAM II) warhead.
Elements of these projects have required the highest level of variation control
achievable. In this role he has developed a new technique for evaluating material
property variations in precision composites and defined a new method of fabrication
that minimizes variation in laminate properties.
Dr.
Hinckley’s research on the link between the design concept and product quality
has gained international attention. A leader on the steering committee of
the Chinese Society of Quality Control referred to this work as “one of the
few breakthrough concepts integrating several important ideas.” A former Professor
at MIT and CEO described this work as, “The best I had seen in a decade in
the manufacturing area.” Illustrating the level of interest, Martin was invited
with Professor Phil Barkan to prepare the Quality Advisor column for an issue
of Manufacturing Engineering. Articles about Martin’s work have been published
in Mechanical Engineering, R&D Magazine, Appliance Manufacturer, and the
Stanford University Campus Report. Technical papers on his research have been
published in Manufacturing Review, the Journal of Quality Technology, and
Quality and Reliability Engineering.
Under
Dr. Hinckley’s leadership, new products have been developed at a fraction
of traditional costs. To illustrate the effectiveness of the simplification
and mistake-proofing methods, the first prototype of a major subsystem was
assembled virtually defect free in one seventh the time initially projected
by the production organization. Part counts were dramatically reduced, and
many of the parts were procured at one tenth the cost of original estimates.
Current Employment:
Assured Quality, Inc. President
design4X Associate
Education:
Ph.D. Stanford - Mechanical Engineering (1994)
M.S. BYU - Civil Engineering (1978)
B.S. BYU - Civil Engineering (1976)
Work Experience:
Assured Quality
Sandia National Laboratories
Awards & Honors:
Distinguished Member
of the Technical Staff – Sandia National Laboratories
National Science
Foundation Fellowship